Category Archives: embroidery

tethered by fluid and ligaments (2023) 

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I have completed my liver embroidery. It’s another large piece, H 15″ x W 21″ (38 × 53 cm). I stitched it from 20 June 2022 to 5 June 2023. I’ve titled it tethered by fluid and ligaments. 

A red & purple organza liver basted onto grey linen. The biliary system with all its branches between the two layers of organza is filled with a bilious green. There are small yellow beads on the biliary system inside the smaller lobe. There are white beads sewn on the narrow end of the top organza liver. An arched T shape filled with tight crisscrossing stitches in thick off-white thread separates the large & small lobes of the liver and curves over the top. There are various blocks of text stitched in light grey single strand thread around the image.They read: What roots grow in us. Branch through our landscapes. In love plexuses. a curvature borne. between what is held & what must be held carefully. fleshy beasts tethered. By fluid and ligaments. Such a gentle embrace. Beneath our skin. Here is the thing I broke & then repaired with brightness. Laid open. The spells it holds. A language spoken. Between boughs & flesh. this golden ingot. This tailed beast. And its viscous song. What a miracle these spaces within us. Are what make us whole. What offertory our bodies. The proper invocation of flesh. Placed on the ground. Hosts on tongues. Fleshy language. Each thing precious in its own decay.

Unlike some of my previous symptomatology pieces, my liver issues haven’t been resolved during the stitching of this piece. . . .

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Opera Mariposa 2023 Benefit & Awareness Month

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I’m so excited to be taking part in Opera Mariposa’s 2023 Benefit + Awareness Month🦋 I’m joining them as a featured artist in their online art showcase, as well as having some of my artwork appearing in their charity prize draw!

Against a gauzy blue background, Jacqueline Ko spins in a sea blue chiffon gown, her long black hair flowing, haloed in rays of light. Next to logos of Opera Mariposa and the ME FM Society of BC, white text reads, Opera Mariposa's 2023 Benefit + Awareness Month. May 1 - June 1. Benefit.OperaMariposa.com.

This entire charity fundraiser runs May 1-June 1 at Benefit.OperaMariposa.com, and features music, videos, art, merchandise, nearly $5,000 in prizes and more! It’s all in support of the ME/FM Society of BC and the rising number of people impacted by Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Fibromyalgia (FM) and Long Covid. There are free and by-donation ways to take part—plus, donations will be TRIPLED up to $3,500, so your support has three times the impact! I hope you’ll check it out, and join me in support of the chronic illness community.

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The Body Electric 2021 & 2022

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My work was once again selected to appear in The Body Electric—an annual health and humanities exhibit that is part of the International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE).

Initially launched during the 2014 International Conference, The Body Electric uses art as a way to critically engage with medicine and healthcare. The Body Electric annual digital art exhibit showcases an inspiring selection of visual art, in a range of media, including photography, drawing, painting, sculpture and video.  

from The Body Electric website

One of this year’s themes was Art as Coping so I submitted three of my paresthesia symptomatology pieces:

On bone white linen, there is the faint outline of a hand, fingers apart. The hand is filled with thick dark blue lines intertwining and crossing over. There are finer thin lines in bone white beneath the thick blue lines. At the wrist, the thick blue lines end in strands of thick thread, hanging over the edge of the linen.
paresthesia (hand 1) – 2016
On black linen there is the outline of an open mouth with the tongue sticking out. The lips are outlined in a dark pink, the tongue in a paler pink, and the teeth in bone white. There are sections outlined on the tongue in thick blue lines. The tip and sides of the tongue are covered in tiny red, orange and white dots. In the center of the tongue there is an hourglass shape made of tiny pink dots. There are taut lines of thin dark blue thread stretched from the tip of the tongue to the sides, from the sides of the tongue to the lips and palate, and from the palate to the tip of the tongue.
paresthesia (tongue 2) – 2018
An embroidery on deep purple linen. There is a purple outline of a feminine right hand from the side, palm up, fingers curled slightly inward. There are many tiny white French knots covering the fingertips and light blue, gold, and navy French knots on parts of the palm. There are fine filigree lines connecting many of the French knots and white strands of thread strung from each fingertip to an apex above the hand. There is a starburst floating above the palm in white and light blue.
push, pull & tingle (2018)
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Visible Mending

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Since taking up hand stitching again in 2016, I discovered I needed something simpler to work on in the evenings and on weekends than my very intricate embroidery pieces. I discovered Visible Mending through some embroiderers on Instagram and it’s become an excellent hobby.

The butt of a pair of black jeans with a Japanese wave pattern on them done in grey sashiko stitching.

I started with some simple sashiko mends on my son’s jeans which got more intricate the more I learned about sashiko techniques. Susan Briscoe’s excellent book—The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook—has been a great resource for this.

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Upcoming Anthology Publication: In Corpore Sano

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I have reached a point in my recovery from ME/CFS that means I am able to write again! ME/CFS is a neuro-immune disease and some of the symptoms include brain fog and cognitive fatigue. When I first got ill in 2015 I was unable to read or write for any length of time because it would utterly exhaust me. I’m very happy to say that I can now read and write with relative ease again.

Most of my writing these days is in the form of journaling, but earlier this year I submitted some of my embroidery work to an anthology about “challenged bodies” and creative work. As part of the In Corpore Sano anthology I was asked to write about my experience of being a creative person living with a debilitating illness and wrote a fairly long essay about that as well as the autobiographical and therapeutic nature of my embroidery work.  Continue reading →